Don't eliminate Human Rights Commission

On behalf of the Onondaga County/Syracuse Human Rights Commission, its staff and, most importantly, the residents of Onondaga County, I am writing to make people aware that the county legislature is proposing to eliminate the commission in this year’s budget.

The HRC is an important enforcer of state law ensuring that minority and women contractors and workers are hired for county/city projects. By enforcing mandated state requirements, the HRC saves taxpayers money and time by preventing state investigations, penalties, fines and delays in building and renovations. As a mediator in labor disputes and discrimination, the HRC remedies situations that would cost businesses and workers expensive litigation fees.

Some figures from our 2008 Annual Report:

Ö$21,261,496, or 16 percent, of the county’s construction funds went to minority- and women-owned business enterprises, exceeding the goal of 15 percent.

Ö$6,634,990 of the construction funds went to women-owned businesses. That’s 5 percent of the total construction dollars spent, meeting the participation goal.

Ö$14,626,506 of the construction funds went to minority-owned businesses. That’s 11 percent of total construction dollars, slightly exceeding the goal of 10 percent.

If not for the HRC, these millions of dollars would not have gone to the minority and women business owners as required as a condition of state funding. Enforcing these goals is challenging, and as history has shown, contractors have not successfully self-enforced these requirements.

Projects such as these will go unmonitored if the HRC is neutered. The proposed solution in the budget is to move contract compliance into the Purchasing Department. But that would be like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Without the HRC, Onondaga County will be at significant risk of losing millions of dollars in funds and/or face public reprimand for not properly enforcing these requirements.

The commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights recently stated, “We respectfully but vehemently disagree with the position that much of work of the Onondaga Human Rights Commission is duplicated by the New York State Division of Human Rights. The powers and duties of the respective agencies often complement, but do not duplicate, one another.”

The Onondaga County/Syracuse Human Rights Commission has played a major role in resolving conflicts and problems in Syracuse-area communities that do not fall under the strictly-defined jurisdictional areas of the New York State Division of Human Rights. We provide assistance to the many individuals and community groups that do not wish to pursue formal legal action, but who are seeking a positive means for intervention, mediation and/or education.

The commission has played a major role in defusing hostility, resolving conflict, preventing escalation of tensions and increasing education and positive human relations.

HRC is not only about contract compliance but about workplace discrimination. This newspaper noted the following in its Oct. 1 editorial: “Where is, by far, the most common place discrimination happens? Banks or real estate offices? Restaurants or other public accommodations? Schools? The answer: on the job — the source of more than 80 percent of civil and human rights complaints.” Moving the human rights specialist into the Onondaga County Personnel Department would place the employee in the unconscionable position of having to make the complaint to his or her employer. In this difficult economy, most employees cannot afford to take that risk.

We ask that the county legislators reconsider this proposal. While it addresses a very difficult budget situation, it is short-sighted and would have costly and far-reaching implications.

Maritza Alvarado is president of the Onondaga County/Syracuse Human Rights Commission.